( RichardRider )

Comments made by RichardRider

Anon, the "insurance" was for 26 weeks. And any private company this issued such an ill-funded "policy" would be both out of business, and their management in jail for fraud for running a Ponzi scheme a la Bernie Maddof.

But it gets worse. NOW the payments are for 73 weeks -- and has been as high as 99 weeks. There was no "unemployment insurance" promised for these extra weeks and ZERO funding for this giveaway.

No Anon11, unemployment is NOT self funded. It's SUPPOSED to be, but by extending the benefits from 26 weeks to as much as 99 weeks, it's FAR from it.

The CA fund is broke, and has borrowed billions from the feds which will never be repaid. As I recall, the CA payment to the feds ALONE is over $500 million in 2011. And each year, we go DEEPER into the hole.http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2010/ss...

It's likely saying that social security is self funded. It is, until it goes broke -- a date we move closer to with each passing year.

Pay people to be unemployed, and you'll get more unemployment. It's amazing how many people find a job (often not their IDEAL job) the day their unemployment runs out.

And let's not forget the folks working "off the books" in the underground economy. For them, reporting their income often is the same has having a 100% income tax bracket. So they have a strong incentive to not work for a conventional salary.

Unemployment in several states is under 5%, but paying people not to work reduces labor mobility. No one should be surprised.

Now now, JeanMarc -- let's not use all those numbers. That's just plain MEAN.

I might note that you grossly UNDERSTATED the scenario -- you budgeted ZERO for the operating costs, and ZERO for the interest on the bonds. And then there are those pesky, inevitable SURPRISE! cost overruns to consider.

Finally there's the fiction (the REQUIREMENT in the prop that was passed) that the train make the run in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not gonna happen. Not even close.

But trust me. HSR fans are undeterred by such trifling details. Forward!!!!!!

Mass transit jobs are NOT necessarily green jobs. Often such trains pollute more per passenger mile than modern cars and buses. That's because most of the time the trains are sparsely used, yet cost essentially the same to run whether full or empty.

And then there is the total cost per passenger mile of rail to consider, but we don't care about costs in California.

There's a misconception in this story. The "2.7 years" is supposed to be the AVERAGE experience of the city council at a POINT IN TIME. Most city council members stay for two full terms -- eight years.

Many wrongly will assume this figure means the average time each city council critter STAYS in office is 2.7 years.

That being said, clearly we need more experience in office -- "institutional memory" and all that. For proof, simply look at how well this has worked in Congress.

California, a destitute state, still gives away college education at fire sale prices. Our community college tuition is by far the lowest in the nation. How low? Nationwide, the average community college tuition is 4.5 times higher than California CC’s. This ridiculously low tuition devalues education to students – resulting in a 30+% drop rate for class completion. In addition, 2/3 of California CC students pay no tuition at all – filling out a simple unverified “hardship” form that exempts them from any tuition payment, or receiving grants and tax credits for their full tuition. http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/... and http://tinyurl.com/ybrc2kn

On top of that, California offers thousands of absolutely free adult continuing education classes – a sop to the upper middle class. In San Diego, over 1,400 classes for everything from baking pastries to ballroom dancing are offered totally at taxpayer expense. http://www.sdce.edu

Protests about increased UC student fees ignore one crucial point -- all poor and most middle class students don't pay the “fees” (our state’s euphemism for tuition)! There are no fees for California families with under $70K income. Moreover, Pell Grants and federal tuition tax credits cover the total 2009-10 fee increases for nearly 3/4 of all undergraduates with household incomes below $180K. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu... and www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/a...

California residential electricity costs an average of 37.2% more than the national average (far higher in San Diego County). For industrial use, CA electricity is 44.6% higher than the national average (December, 2009).http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electric...

Consider California’s net domestic migration (migration between states). From April, 2000 through June, 2008 (8 years, 2 months) California has lost a NET 1.4 million people. The departures slowed in 2008 only because people couldn’t sell their homes. http://www.mdp.state.md.us/msdc/Pop_e...These are not welfare kings and queens departing. They are the young, the educated, the productive, the ambitious, the wealthy (such as Tiger Woods), and retirees seeking to make their pensions provide more bang for the buck. The irony is that a disproportionate number of these seniors are retired state and local government employees fleeing the state that provides them with their opulent pensions – in order to avoid the high taxes that these same employees pushed so hard through their unions.

As taxes rise and jobs disappear, we lose our tax base, continuing California’s state and local fiscal death spiral. This downward spiral must stop NOW.

NOTE: To see the latest version of this “Breaking Bad” column, plus other goodies, go to my blog at www.RiderBlog.NotLong.com.